As we face this unprecedented situation with COVID-19 that is affecting everyone’s lives, our priority is the safety of our employees. We also remain committed to serving the important needs of our customers to the greatest extent possible. With the circumstances changing rapidly, the importance of keeping our employees and customers aware of our efforts is critical.

First and foremost, while we are experiencing reduced demand from some customers, our intention is to keep our physical manufacturing facilities operational as many of our customers depend on us to communicate critical information to their customers. While it’s difficult to be certain of anything right now, particularly given all the news around “shelter in place” orders, we plan to remain operational as an “essential” business, which has been grounded in facts reviewed by our legal counsel.

However, we’ve taken several important steps to ensure we are protecting our employees and adhering to guidance from the CDC, as well as federal and local authorities. These steps include:

We have mandated that all employees who are not essential to day-to-day manufacturing work remotely.

We have closed all facilities that provide non-manufacturing services as those employees are all working remotely. This includes our agency services locations in Itasca, New York and Nashville.

We have implemented new procedures to ensure we are providing a clean and safe work environment. We are regularly cleaning all machines and high-touch areas, we’ve placed hand sanitizers at all doors and time clocks, and we’ve eliminated all visitors.

We are implementing a temporary COVID-19 sick leave policy that would provide employees up to 10 paid sick days for COVID-19 related matters. This will ensure employees who are sick or who have been exposed to COVID-19 can safely stay home without the fear of losing wages.

We have made contingency plans to temporarily shut-down a facility if one becomes exposed to COVID-19 and will follow the recommended CDC guidelines prior to re-opening. We anticipate that process would take approximately 48 hours or less. In the event of a temporary shutdown, all hourly employees who were expecting to work those days will be paid. We will also leverage our other owned facilities or third parties to minimize disruption to our customers.

As we move forward, we will continue to update you on our efforts and plans as they evolve. We understand these are very challenging times for everyone and we will continue to take steps to minimize the impact to our employees and customers.